Scripps - General Discussion

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 909]

4 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Speaking of...

 

This is a HUGE get for WXMI. Terri DeBoer is coming back to West Michigan Television in mid-November on WXMI's Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday editions of their morning news.

 

https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/meteorologist-terri-deboer-joins-fox-17-morning-news

I'm very disappointed in this... They let go 3 perfectly good meteorologists for her.  Terri could do lots better.. I was expecting her to take over for George Lessens at WZZM... 

[TheRolyPoly 2362]

16 hours ago, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

I'm very disappointed in this... They let go 3 perfectly good meteorologists for her.  Terri could do lots better.. I was expecting her to take over for George Lessens at WZZM... 

 

And yet, WZZM is letting Samantha Jacques take over.

 

Hell, even if Terri were to join WZZM and become Chief, she would still follow Sam's route in still doing it in the morning.

 

Also, remember that it says that she's only doing it three days a week so she wants it part-time to then do other things in her life so I don't think WZZM was in the cards for her.

[Howard Beale 57]

Here's something substantial from the Scripps world.  The company settled a discrimination lawsuit filed by Michael Brooks, a former KJRH-TV news anchor who said the station fired him because he's gay.

Source: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/scipps-media-gay-tv-anchor-settle-workplace-discrimination-case (paywalled)

 

Here's some background on the case: https://casetext.com/case/brooks-v-scripps-media-inc

According to the lawsuit, KJRH's then-GM Amy Calvert learned Brooks was gay, and told him his sexual orientation could affect his job "because this is Tulsa after all."  He was later reassigned and given more work responsibilities.  The lawsuit shows Calvert also falsely accused Brooks of trying to extort then-news director Gerardo Lopez.  Brooks was later fired.

Calvert is now the GM at KOKH-TV, the Sinclair-owned station in Oklahoma City.  Lopez left KJRH to become news director at WBZ-TV in Boston.

[Megatron81 256]

And I wonder if Wood TV & Nexstar didn't want to give Terri a part time gig last year when she left the station. It is a huge get for WXMI. I thought that Terri wasn't going to return to the business truth be told I thought she was going to live in FL part time as well when she said her Farwell on Wood TV last year on 8 West .

[T.L. Hughes 881]

On 10/18/2024 at 9:50 PM, Howard Beale said:

Here's something substantial from the Scripps world.  The company settled a discrimination lawsuit filed by Michael Brooks, a former KJRH-TV news anchor who said the station fired him because he's gay.

Source: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/scipps-media-gay-tv-anchor-settle-workplace-discrimination-case (paywalled)

 

Here's some background on the case: https://casetext.com/case/brooks-v-scripps-media-inc

According to the lawsuit, KJRH's then-GM Amy Calvert learned Brooks was gay, and told him his sexual orientation could affect his job "because this is Tulsa after all."  He was later reassigned and given more work responsibilities.  The lawsuit shows Calvert also falsely accused Brooks of trying to extort then-news director Gerardo Lopez.  Brooks was later fired.

Calvert is now the GM at KOKH-TV, the Sinclair-owned station in Oklahoma City.  Lopez left KJRH to become news director at WBZ-TV in Boston.

Funny enough, Brooks was weeknight co-anchor at KOKH for seven years, before moving up I-44 to KJRH. Given Sinclair’s political leanings, the fact that management at KOKH/KOCB did not appear to have any issue with his sexuality (that we know of) but his then-GM at KJRH (whose parent company’s editorial leanings are decidedly neutral) did is ironic to say the least.

Edited October 21, 2024 by T.L. Hughes

[rtmclaug 67]

It’s such a shame that Scripps has fallen this far. The Scrippscast has really tarnished them. Why couldn’t they just do this in smaller markets and implement at bigger stations as they see fit? I’m getting closer and closer to removing Scripps stations from my phone and my list of stations to apply to. Any stations worth keeping on my phone/applying to? WPTV is the first/only one that comes to my mind. 

[Howard Beale 57]

FTVLIve claims, in a paywalled story, that Scripps is going to lay off 100+ people.  The insinuation is these layoffs are on top of the ones Scripps already announced.  However, I believe FTVLive is basing that on a WARN notice Scripps filed with the Georgia Department of Labor, where Scripps discloses it will lay of 118 Georgia-based Scripps News employees.  Scripps already disclosed those layoffs, but had to file a required WARN notice.

[nathannah 2402]

The goodbyes for everyone on Scripps News yesterday.

 

 

 

[ns8401 940]

The 11pm Newscast on WXYZ is now fully recorded except for the weather which is live. On the one hand it’s really polished and probably the best it’s been in years. On the other hand there are no interactions with the sports or weather anchors… they just show a weather or sports intro graphic and there they are. It’s rather jarring. It also leads to the editing not being perfect and the anchors start the next story faster than they could possibly stop one story and start the next. I get that Scripps is trying this out but there are ways to make it work better. The good old fashioned fully live newscast isn’t really so bad. They’ll probably back off this eventually. 
 

Their 6pm is the newscast of record and it’s fully live still I imagine for that reason. The update show (it literally was once called Action News update) is an ok place to do this I suppose. 

[NBC89 1]

Here in Fort Myers, we have Fox4 lately; they have been advertising like crazy scripps is wasting money on a station that has little to No viewers.

[ScottSchell 352]

Wanted to bring this up not 100% sure if this was apart of the layoffs Scripps did or not but KSHB axed Chief Meteorologist Mike Nicco.

[TheRolyPoly 2362]

1 hour ago, ScottSchell said:

Wanted to bring this up not 100% sure if this was apart of the layoffs Scripps did or not but KSHB axed Chief Meteorologist Mike Nicco.

 

It was. We've known this for 7 months now. KSHB has no Chief anymore.

 

https://www.adweek.com/tvspy/layoffs-at-scripps-kansas-city-station-chief-meteorologist-mike-nicco-out/

[MediaZone4K 2158]

On 11/23/2024 at 11:04 PM, ns8401 said:

The 11pm Newscast on WXYZ is now fully recorded except for the weather which is live. On the one hand it’s really polished and probably the best it’s been in years. On the other hand there are no interactions with the sports or weather anchors… they just show a weather or sports intro graphic and there they are. It’s rather jarring. It also leads to the editing not being perfect and the anchors start the next story faster than they could possibly stop one story and start the next. I get that Scripps is trying this out but there are ways to make it work better. The good old fashioned fully live newscast isn’t really so bad. They’ll probably back off this eventually. 
 

Their 6pm is the newscast of record and it’s fully live still I imagine for that reason. The update show (it literally was once called Action News update) is an ok place to do this I suppose. 

Granted, in smaller markets the 11:00 p.m. newscast is typically a regurgitation of what aired at 4:00 p.m, so it might as well be pre-recorded.

 

But in a market as large as Detroit, where I'm sure there's news happening at night, what is to be gained from pre recording newscasts?

 

Are they saving costs, because I'm sure the anchors are still in the building anyway for a full 8-hour shift?

 

If news breaks won't they just keep having to add pre-recorded VOs? And what time is the newscast being recorded? I assume they do it as late as possible to avoid anything new breaking before airtime? In that case, they might as well just go live.

Edited December 5, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[ns8401 940]

1 hour ago, MediaZone4K said:

Granted, in smaller markets the 11:00 p.m. newscast is typically a regurgitation of what aired at 4:00 p.m. So it might as well be pre-recorded.

 

But in a market as large as Detroit, where I'm sure there's news happening at night, what is to be gained from pre recording newscasts?

 

Are they saving costs because I'm sure the anchors are still in the building anyway for a full 8-hour shift?

 

If news breaks won't they just keep having to adding pre-recorded VOs? And what time is the newscast being recorded? I'm assuming they do it as late as possible to avoid anything new breaking before airtime? In that case they might as well just go live.

Breaking news in this market isn’t what it used to be… the area is improved markedly from where it used to be and crime and such is down as a result. I figure they record it in the 9pm hour if they do… they need the studio at 10 for the WMYD newscast. I’ve also seen some that were live and only sports seemed to be recorded so it’s inconsistent. The field reports are never live unless there is breaking news and that goes for the flagship 6pm newscast too. They are 100% live in studio for that one with everybody at the anchor desk. Same for the 5. 

Edited December 5, 2024 by ns8401

[nathannah 2402]

More sponcon on WTMJ to replace Scripps News in the 3pm half-hour starting on March 10; It's a Morning Blend extension titled What's Brewing Wisconsin. This time the twist is they're doing advertorial segments...on location.

[ns8401 940]

Scripps has begun doing a rejoin to their newscasts from the A to B block… “You’re watching 7 News Detroit (news logo up there) then the lighthouse effect and “part of the Scripps News Group” with the new Scripps logo on screen. I will say WXYZ’s quality is up a surprising amount and Scripps appears to be working fairly hard at making improvements to the product. It’s probably the best it’s been in 17 years or so. Surprising credit to them. Their new news director seems to have helped as has making their most senior reporter an “executive reporter” overseeing the other reporters as a manager. 
 

On the downside the 11pm is still recorded as are the weekend evening newscasts and it’s blatantly obvious at times because things get cut off accidentally in transitions. Better than nothing though. 

[NYAZSporty 124]

51 minutes ago, ns8401 said:

Scripps has begun doing a rejoin to their newscasts from the A to B block… “You’re watching 7 News Detroit (news logo up there) then the lighthouse effect and “part of the Scripps News Group” with the new Scripps logo on screen.

Yup, noticed that too watching KNXV's 10pm news tonight which they've branded Arizona Tonight despite it not being mentioned in the listings as that just ABC 15 News at 10PM, although I know this rebranding is also taking place elsewhere around Scripps like WFTS (ABC/Tampa Bay). 

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 909]

The pink slip express pulled into Grand Rapids' WXMI -- Around 10 were let go and the sports department is supposedly gone, per FTVLive

 

I'm still shocked that they got Terri DeBoer.  I'm very curious how much they offered her.  She's only on-air 3 days.  It couldn't have been cheap.  Especially since they had to rid of the 3 females before her to get her there.  I know they nabbed her just for ratings....

[Howard Beale 57]

8 hours ago, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

The pink slip express pulled into Grand Rapids' WXMI -- Around 10 were let go and the sports department is supposedly gone, per FTVLive

 

I'm still shocked that they got Terri DeBoer.  I'm very curious how much they offered her.  She's only on-air 3 days.  It couldn't have been cheap.  Especially since they had to rid of the 3 females before her to get her there.  I know they nabbed her just for ratings....

According to a post on Reddit, the layoffs affect every station in the Scripps group.  Some worse than others.  No details on exact layoffs just yet.

 

This sounds like Scripps is desperately trying to make its upcoming quarterly report look good or at least not entirely terrible.  The fact the company delayed its earnings report alone is a sign of trouble.

[TheRob 937]

The private producer FB group indicated severance was available to those who stayed until around the end of the month.

 

Bankruptcy reorganization ahead?

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 909]

3 minutes ago, TheRob said:

The private producer FB group indicated severance was available to those who stayed until around the end of the month.

 

Bankruptcy reorganization ahead?

Plus their stock prices keep plummeting... Definitely something amiss

[nathannah 2402]

Now wondering if "What's Brewing WI" even gets to the air; you know WTMJ wants it for the ad revenue, but is it even enough to sustain basic production and staff costs?

[ns8401 940]

I bet Scripps gets broken up at some point. Expanding with the crappy groups they purchased over the years was dumb. 
 

No offense to the KMGH or WTMJ fans out there. 

Edited March 6 by ns8401

[mre29 1513]

1 hour ago, ns8401 said:

I bet Scripps gets broken up at some point. Expanding with the crappy groups they purchased over the years was dumb. 
 

No offense to the KMGH or WTMJ fans out there. 

 

Purchasing Ion and most of its O&O stations (over sixty of 'em!) and not doing anything with them beyond running daily marathons of procedural dramas (read: cop shows) from the last few decades and occasional live sports is particularly dumb. I doubt they're attracting any cord-cutters with that strategy.

 

[Weeters 1915]

On 3/4/2025 at 11:38 AM, nathannah said:

Now wondering if "What's Brewing WI" even gets to the air; you know WTMJ wants it for the ad revenue, but is it even enough to sustain basic production and staff costs?

It probably will. It's mostly just all the Morning Blend people, and they'd still be in the building at that time anyways. Same goes for staffing. They had a 3PM news before because the PM production crew is already in the building by that point (and god forbid they have any time during their workday where they're not producing live television). It's a sunk cost on the production side, in the studio at least. The added costs to produce What's Brewing Wisconsin will probably be another producer and the additional host, and maybe paying for part of a photographer's day.

 

The real question is whether or not "Morning Blend but in the afternoon" is a viable product. Morning Blend prints money, but I'm not sure if you can have lightning strike twice four hours later.